Friday, October 29, 2004
John Peel 1939 - 2004
No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
John Donne (1572 - 1631), Meditation XVII
What Donne neglected to mention was that some deaths diminish more than others. A prime example of this was the sad news on Tuesday that John Peel had died.
I wouldn't call myself a lifelong fan but John Peel has been there all of my life. I remember, as a young teenager, listening to his late night programme on Radio 1 whilst I was tucked up in bed, supposedly sleeping. The radio was turned down to the lowest level and held tightly against my ear so that my parents didn't know what I was doing. Peel's monotone growl would lull me to sleep, although his choice of music sometimes woke me up!
My musical tastes rarely agreed with his, but he always made you step back and evaluate why you liked certain types of music. He also never seemed to compromise himself – his music programmes were for himself and if you happened to come along for the ride, that was up to you. He never pandered to popular taste. He was his own man, an individual in a sea of faceless, nameless copycat 'me-too' men. For these things alone, he deserves respect.
I say our tastes rarely coincided but the truth is, he was way ahead of me. Stuff he was playing before anyone else later became the background music to my generation and a lot of it is now considered classic – 'Teenage Kicks' by The Undertones being a prime example.
As we both got older and he migrated to Radio 4, he became a bigger part of my life, with 'Home Truths'. His style and approach to life was perfectly suited to taking nominally dull subjects and dull people and finding the humour and the humanity in them.
He had become a much-loved institution and the shock of his loss is tremendous. God bless you, John, you will be sorely missed.
John Donne (1572 - 1631), Meditation XVII
What Donne neglected to mention was that some deaths diminish more than others. A prime example of this was the sad news on Tuesday that John Peel had died.
I wouldn't call myself a lifelong fan but John Peel has been there all of my life. I remember, as a young teenager, listening to his late night programme on Radio 1 whilst I was tucked up in bed, supposedly sleeping. The radio was turned down to the lowest level and held tightly against my ear so that my parents didn't know what I was doing. Peel's monotone growl would lull me to sleep, although his choice of music sometimes woke me up!
My musical tastes rarely agreed with his, but he always made you step back and evaluate why you liked certain types of music. He also never seemed to compromise himself – his music programmes were for himself and if you happened to come along for the ride, that was up to you. He never pandered to popular taste. He was his own man, an individual in a sea of faceless, nameless copycat 'me-too' men. For these things alone, he deserves respect.
I say our tastes rarely coincided but the truth is, he was way ahead of me. Stuff he was playing before anyone else later became the background music to my generation and a lot of it is now considered classic – 'Teenage Kicks' by The Undertones being a prime example.
As we both got older and he migrated to Radio 4, he became a bigger part of my life, with 'Home Truths'. His style and approach to life was perfectly suited to taking nominally dull subjects and dull people and finding the humour and the humanity in them.
He had become a much-loved institution and the shock of his loss is tremendous. God bless you, John, you will be sorely missed.
# posted by Neil J Fletcher @ 1:40 pm 
